Erik Nordeus - The Engineer

One famous customer who had ordered a Roadster was the actor Leonardo DiCaprio. He became interested in environmental issues when he was invited to the White House where he listened to a speech by Al Gore. Later at the Oscars, he arrived in a Toyota Prius to market the car. “I’m photographed constantly by paparazzi when I leave my home so it was just a responsible thing to do as an environmentalist,” he said. 371

The customer confidence was now in free fall. DiCaprio and other famous customers like George Clooney, Matt Damon, and the founders of Google didn’t get their cars. 59They had already paid a large deposit several years ago. One customer had even visited Elon’s home to give him an envelope with cash to pay for a Roadster. 159

When one customer ordered a Roadster, his friends said he would never see his car because Tesla was just a Ponzi scheme. Now the customer thought his friends were correct and he had lost his money. “Right now, we are facing an issue which is a crisis of confidence among our customers,” Elon said. “You can only tell them delay so many times and they start thinking ‘man, is this company ever going to get me a car?’“ 331

Michael “Flea” Balzary from the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers ordered his Roadster after watching the documentary Who killed the electric car? “So then nearly a year goes by, and still no car, I started to get a little antsy, still excited, but wondering if Tesla might actually be the name of some farmland I bought on an island of Nova Scotia somewhere,” he said. 271

To make matters worse, the popular television show Top Gear reviewed the Roadster. The review began with a drag race competition between a Roadster and a Lotus Elise. The Roadster won. “Not bad for a motor that has the size of a water melon and only has one moving part,” the reviewer, Jeremy Clarkson, said. He then went on arguing how it’s cheaper to charge an electric car compared with to fill up a gasoline car, and that the weight of the batteries affected the steering.

After the promising start, the review went downhill. “Although Tesla say that it will do 200 miles, we worked out that on our track, it will run out after just 55 miles,” Clarkson said. They also showed how the Roadster stopped on the test track. Clarkson said it would take 25 days to charge a Roadster with electricity from a small wind power station, and you have to buy two Roadster – one should remain in your garage where it can charge. 220

The interesting part of the Top Gear story is that the Tesla employee who delivered the cars happened to notice a script from Top Gear laying around. Written before the cars were tested, the script told Clarkson to say, “In the real world, it doesn’t seem to work.” 276,326So Tesla fought back. “The breakdowns were staged and the statements are untrue,” Tesla wrote in their blog before they sued Top Gear .

The television show argued the 55 miles was correct if you drive it with full speed on their test track, and it will do 200 miles if you drive it in a normal way on the road. Your driving style will affect the range of an electric car. If you have a cruise control, the vehicle will not go faster than intended, and it will also avoid the small and unnecessary accelerations and decelerations that consumes more energy. 226

Despite the negative review by Top Gear , Elon enjoys the television show and thinks Clarkson can be very funny. “Clarkson’s show is more about entertainment than it’s about truth,” Elon said. “I think most people realize that, but not everyone.” Clarkson is a man who tends to dislike electric cars and American cars. Tesla is an American car company that manufactures electric cars. It’s a recipe for disaster if you want to get a good review by Top Gear . 418

When you don’t think it can get any worse, it can. One Tesla employee leaked information to the popular blog Valleywag . He talked about how the morale had sunk and how Tesla took deposits from customers when the company had only $9 million in the bank account. Would these buyers really get their cars? “As a longtime employee of Tesla Motors, yesterday was the worst day since I joined Tesla Motors four years ago,” the leak said. “I cannot conscientiously be a bystander anymore and allow my company to deceive the public and defraud our dear customers. Our customers and the general public are the reason Tesla is so loved. The fact that they are being lied to is just wrong.” 430

To find the employee who leaked the information, Elon hired a team of computer forensics who went through the computers. Another investigator took fingerprints off a printout near the copier used to leak the email. 428They found the leak and he was fired.

The leak was positive to Tesla and he really liked the Model S, but the ongoing events had affected him. “The past month has been very difficult, sitting through planning meetings and watch employees make in or out of the layoff list,” he said. “It is so sad to lose 87 employees in a week. I became very upset and did the very foolish thing of writing a letter to Valleywag. I have never thought this letter would create such an upsetting situation for Tesla Motors and I should have never sent that letter.” 429

Tesla suspected there was more than one leak. To find out, Elon sent to several employees slightly altered versions of the same e-mail. In one version, he wrote “I am” and in another version he wrote “I’m.” Ironically, the e-mail began with Elon saying, “I’m a big believer in trusting employees.” He continued the e-mail by describing that he was concerned about the leaks and how it really hurts free communication when minor issues are leaked and then blown up by the media. “It is nutty that a company like Tesla, which is doing really well right now (how many companies can say that they’re sold out through October?) should suffer from misleading articles on blog sites that would have no credibility, but for a purported inside leak,” he wrote. “The leaks often aren’t even accurate!” 428

But Elon had failed to mention his idea to send altered version of the same e-mail to everyone. By an accident, each employee also got the original version of the e-mail attached to his or her individual version. When everyone found out what Elon had tried to do, the situation worsened. “Life for the employees at Tesla Motors has got more depressing over the last few months,” an employee said. “Elon Musk is now spying on everyone.” 428

Tesla decided to release Model S earlier than expected, and they had a big release party. But Elon was skeptical. “The only sad story is that I’m not looking forward to the party tonight,” he said. “I’m not trying to do this company because I think this is the easiest way to make a buck – I’d be bloody insane. There are many other things I’d do if maximizing my wealth was my objective. The reality is, it’s not fun running a car company and a rocket company at the same time. The amount of work I have is way past the fun point.” 223

Tesla applied for a loan guarantee from the Department Of Energy [DOE]. This decision would be criticized – not least when Elon took his private jet to Washington. This was after the public had criticized the executives from the Big Three automakers when they took the private jet to Washington to negotiate a bailout. “Much has been written about my use of a ‘private’ jet, as though this is a personal indulgence or shows that I have some kind of Marie Antionette approach to living expenses,” Elon said. “Last year, I did roughly 200 business trips and spent 500 hours in the air, not counting airport time. In contrast, you could count the number of truly personal trips I did on one hand. If I didn’t need the plane to get my jobs done running SpaceX and Tesla simultaneously, it would have been sold long ago.” 440